In the bitter aftermath of the Presidential election, the true difference between the Democrats and the Republicans has been put on view for all to see. The question is, does everyone understand it?
With Hillary Clinton's gracious concession speech, and President Obama's conciliatory remarks today, the Democratic Party's values are on display and the stark contrast with the Republican Party and their "values" is jarring.
When Barack Obama was first elected eight years ago, the leading Republicans circled their wagons and proudly proclaimed their intent to make Barack Obama a one-term President. Their strategy, from the very beginning of Obama's first term of office, was to famously become the "Party of No". Their goal was to block any and all legislative initiatives of the duly elected President, and his party's mandate.
The result was plain to see, six years of non-governance and obstructionism. The racist and un-American strategy went into full force after the 2010 mid-term elections, when the Republicans retook the Senate and the House of Representatives. This has extended to even the unconstitutional denial of President Obama's right to name a Supreme Court justice, upon the death of Antonin Scalia many months ago. Now that Trump has emerged victorious, he will name the next Supreme Court judge, along with the Republican majorities in Congress.
It has taken only one day for leading Democrats to offer up their cooperation with Republicans. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi have offered to work with Republicans on areas of common ground.
If this were a fairy tale, that might be a heart warming end to a contentious election with everyone holding hands and humming Kumbaya as the sun sets slowly in the background.
The terrible reality is that the Republican agenda is one of betrayal of American values and fairness. The GOP is on record as heading straight to blocking women's right to choose, taking away millions of Americans right to healthcare, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and cutting back or eliminating entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.
It is an abomination for Democrats to do anything at all to cooperate with Republicans in any of their legislative initiatives. Brain dead pundits will decry this as ignoring the "will of the people" that just elected Donald Trump and delivered to him a Republican Congress, but the fact that Clinton won the popular vote will be conveniently ignored . An imaginary "mandate" will be proclaimed to pressure Democrats to fall in line. Where was this "mandate" in 2008? "Let's not dwell on the past, let's move forward."
Two wrongs can never make a right, but this simplistic maxim holds no water in the USA in 2016. It is the duty of the Democrats to block the heinous Republican Party program in any way possible, even at the expense of continued governmental gridlock. Right wing talk radio will howl, but there will be no equivalence between Democratic obstruction in 2016-2018 and beyond and Republican obstruction from 2008-2016. The Republican goal was to block healthcare for Americans and to dispense with a haughty black community organizer that dared to ascend to the Presidency. The Democrats will be defending Americans rights, heath care, and civil liberties.
It is time for Democrats to stand fast against the Republican threat to America, its citizens and its historic values.
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